With over 50,000 applications available ....

iPhone is great phone, I just don't get a comment "With over 50,000 applications available ...". We all know that maybe 1000 is useful, the rest is useless junk Fart 1,2,3,4,5. Yet there is no app for turn-by-turn navigation.

Myabe I'm only one out there, but I don't even look at TOP 25 online apps anymore, it's just junk. I wish nokia would push their phones more in US, I cannot justify to spend $500 on a phone.

he still SPEAKS ?

I thought that, by now, he would have mastered telepathic communication...

all hail the leader

He's like David Miscavige. All hail the glorious leader

re: With over 50,000 applications available ....

>Yet there is no app for turn-by-turn navigation.

There are at least three of them in the store right now, though some are country specific. At least another two are in some active stage of development.

@vincent

You will have to wait till iPhone 4.0 for telepathy support

After six months, Steve Jobs speaks

For some reason I'm reminded of a few scenes from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy..

There have been turn-by-turn apps for a long while now…

Can you send me the names, please. I live in US and what I saw was Google Maps with a dot and very creepy unusable crashing apps. TomTom has been talking about the app for more than 6 months now, did you actually use it?

every other smartphone has solid turn-by-turn solution (Nokia Symbian, Blackberry, WinMo, PRE)

@AC

"You'd have to be a serious fanboy to sign your name in the first weekend, we all know what happened to the prices last time!"

What, you mean that after a while the prices might come down a little? Gosh, I've never seen that happen with any other bit of new technology.

Re: Ian Ferguson

I was about to post something similar. Furthermore, the tone and the 'thrust' of the comment attributed to him sounds very un-Jobs like - it seems much more like something a PR flac would say. Not that he can't be snarky or combative, but when he's quoted for real he always speaks in a way that's a bit different from everyone else. This sounds like the kind of comment that any tech industry CEO type could make.

@AC 22:02

"Strange I haven't bumped into one yet."

What, all the people who have bought one are going to live in your neck of the woods? Or in your street? One million phones world-wide - spread on a reasonable geographic distro? Sigh.

@ spicycauldron

Hear, hear!

O2, whom I mostly admire for their Customer Services (they're as good as Orange were when they first came to market), have seriously got it wrong. They assured me that it was Apple's fault that their pricing was bad. Apple wouldn't comment (no surprises there, then).

The contract/phone announcement plan is dysfuncional. O2 spoiled users last time around by allowing new phone (3G) purchase on the signing of a new contract. This time they want us to pay off the remainder of the contract and I don't have a problem with that as I signed up for 18 months. But they want £185 for a phone which, in the US, is £125. Even adding a US Sales Tax brings it nowhere near the £185!

So, the result for just me is that both o2 and Apple have lost a potential customer for at least 6 months but more likely 12 months because I'll wait for the iPhone 4.

Baaaaad marketing!

Upgrades, tethering and maps.

I'm missing something. You see, when you sign a contract for a phone, you are normally bound to that contract for the length of it. Most mobile operators seem to let you upgrade in the last 3 months, if it's an 18 month contract. The iPhone was released, contrary to another of The Register's articles, 11 months ago. So if the iPhone was bought on launch day (11 July) then surely those individuals have got to wait until at least November (15 months) before they can upgrade. There are of course two other methods available. Either buy a new handset at full price, sim free from France or buy out the rest of the contract. I know that O2 had offered an early upgrade option at last years release, but clearly that was a one off. Tethering on the other hand. If, as gleefully reported by several individuals, other mobiles can be tethered at no extra charge, the the same should be applied to iPhone. Several thousand letters, phone calls and emails of complaint to OFCOM from iPhone owners is perhaps the best course of action.

Jimbo 7. Use Google to search for iPhone TomTom. Then go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afwq2_HGJ1A to see it in action. It's an odd one to pick on as the infomation is out there. Several thousand people have seen the demo given by TomToms CTO. Everyone else seems to be highlighting the 'lack' of multitasking as the new missing 'feature'. The brands that you mention do not support turn by turn navigation as a standard factory configuration. They are available as part of a collaborative deal with mobile operators or bought by the owner of the phone. Let it go.

@ Jimbo7

I can't recall the name of the one that has been available for some time (I read about it on a forum quite some time ago and as I don't have a car I didn't take any note of it), but here is one that is out since OS 3.0 and has good reviews:

http://www.navigon.com/site/int/en/products/navigation_software/iphone

Not sure if it is available in the US, but it is on the UK store.

I attribute the iFone sales...

to many dumb, sheep like people who would pay for jobs' knob cheese, if it was called iSmeg

nothing to see here, move along, move along

@Anonymous Coward 09:11 GMT

Why are you reading and commenting the article then? People like you that hide behind the AC button are genuine cowards that generally wouldn't have what it takes to say that to someones face. Many in these 'debates' revel in the fact that in the last year Windows Mobile based devices outsold the iPhone. Are those that bought Windows Mobile handsets sheep as well? What about the reported 3.6 million that bought Blackberrys? Surely that's just down to marketing? What about all those millions that refuse to look at anything other than a Nokia? Are they sheep? Hey, Windows users! You are sheep too! I do get it though. Your "thinking" only applies to people that buy Apple products because you are obviously a bit of a dick, and like the others, you just have to have your say. It's like the individuals that protest vociferously how they aren’t racist or homophobic - protesting a little too much perhaps? In reality, it's simple. No one says that you have to buy one, and if you don’t want one, well that’s fine. It’s even ok to not like the device. We do after all live in a (relatively) free country. Other people have decided that the phone is for them and are happy with the functionality and the cost. That is their right. You, as a coward, don’t get to call people names. It’s childish and devalues any argument and reasoning that you (or others) may have for or against a device. So please, take your cowardly playground trolling elsewhere and get some medical help – it’s not normal to feel that way about an object. I didn't realise that the school holidays had started already...

@AC 10:49 GMT

+1

(Interestingly I couldn't just post +1 as I got the errmsg: "A comment is required, in addition to a title." Surely they haven't automated the Moderatrix yet?)

@With over 50,000 applications available

Turn by turn is provided by Navigon mobilenavigator, out now for £54.99.